Because Plum specializes in IVR technology and only IVR technology, we have a big incentive to make it the most efficient, capable alternative to live agents as possible. Vendors that do IVR and also live agents don’t have that same incentive.

In my mind, it’s similar to REI, the outdoor sporting equipment chain with stores all over the country. The flagship store is actually in Denver, only a few blocks away from our Denver office.

REI has a ton of sporting equipment in a wide variety of sports—from swimming to kayaking, cross-country skiing to backcountry snowboarding, hiking to climbing, et cetera.

When you first go to the flagship store in Denver, it’s kind of a “whoa” moment as you look up at the multiple stories of very good sporting equipment. You imagine they have everything you could possible want, in whichever sport you want.

You wander around from section to section—skis to bikes to boats of various kinds (canoes, river kayaks, ocean kayaks…). It’s awesome to have so much stuff from so many disciplines.

But when you start to look closer, you begin to see that maybe the store doesn’t have as much stuff as you first thought. Not that it doesn’t have a variety of sports on offer, just that it doesn’t go as deep into each sport as you might want.

Of course it doesn’t. They can only fit so many things into one building, even if it is a big old warehouse. You have to go online to REI’s website to get a wider selection. But even then you may not find what you’re looking for, if you’re serious enough about your sport (or business).

For that kind of specialization, you need to go to a shop that does that sport and that sport only, whether online or otherwise. It’s just how it works. Whether for skis or cloud IVR, you need a specialist.